Moony and Padfoot Reunion
by Melistborn
Summary: A one shot scene that takes place sometime after the third book.


**Just a fun conversation that could have taken place between Lupin and Sirius, catching up and reminiscing over a couple of butterbeers. I feel like this conversation definitely happened, even if we didn't get to witness it.**

Sirius pounded his fist on the table as he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Moony," Sirius said in a tone of admiration, "That is brilliant! You mad, evil, genius werewolf!"

Lupin sipped his butterbeer looking both pleased at Sirius's praise and a bit ashamed.

"It's not like it sounds. It was nothing personal. I was merely teaching my students how to cope with boggarts. It's standard defensive magic for third year. How was I to know the boggart would assume the shape of Severus. . ."

But Sirius wasn't listening. He was laughing harder than ever, desperately trying to catch his breath. Lupin saw a glimpse of his old friend again beneath the hardened exterior and emotional scars from the years in Azkaban. It almost felt like old times. Finally, Sirius leaned back in his chair grinning and lifted his butterbeer toward Lupin in a salute before drinking deeply.

Lupin grinned back despite himself, taking a drink from his own bottle.

"I wish I could perform legilimency on you right now, just so I could see the memory of that moment for myself," said Sirius. "Was he wearing that hideous fur stole? And the hat?"

"Complete with the stuffed vulture," Lupin replied sheepishly. Sirius nearly fell out of his seat as he dissolved into fits of laughter once more.

Lupin couldn't help laughing at the memory, too. Perhaps it had been a bit childish of him to orchestrate a situation in which Boggart Snape had dressed as Neville's Gran, but it had been a highly effective teaching moment. And the way Snape bullied the poor Longbottom boy . . . well, he'd had it coming.

"So, what did old Snivellus do when he found out you dressed him up in Augusta Longbottom's clothes?" Sirius asked once he had regained his composure.

"The usual: went to Dumbledore and tried to get me fired, and when that didn't work, he threatened to curse me, threatened to make my life a living hell. But that was nothing compared to when he tried to get the Mauraders Map to work."

Sirius nearly spit out his mouthful of butterbeer.

"Didn't I tell you?" Lupin continued. "He confiscated it from Harry and then called me into his office under the pretense that it was a dangerous magical object."

"Seriously?! How did Harry end up with the map? Wasn't it confiscated by Filch years ago?" Sirius asked.

"I've no idea how Harry acquired it, and I didn't ask. But the security measures we installed worked perfectly," Lupin answered. "I'm sure Snape knew what it was but couldn't figure out how to make it work. So, he pointed his wand at it and said 'Professor Severus Snape, master of this school, commands you to yield the information you conceal!'"

"And . . .?" Sirius waited expectantly.

"I believe your exact words were 'Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor,'" Lupin answered smugly.

"Couldn't agree more!" Sirius beamed with pride. "I'll never understand why Dumbledore would let a git like that teach. I wouldn't trust him to teach a flobberworm."

"He is a skilled potions master," Lupin started to say.

"We both know he wouldn't have been nearly as skilled at potions if Lily hadn't been letting him copy her homework twice a week," Sirius reminded him. "Now _she_ would have made an excellent potions master."

They both fell silent, drinking their butterbeer and thinking about Lily. Not only had she been James's girlfriend and eventual wife, but by seventh year she had practically been one of the marauders.

Sirius smiled. "Remember how upset she got in sixth year when she couldn't figure out why James kept ditching her on weekends during the full moon?"

Lupin smiled back sadly. "Remember how hard she worked to learn how to brew Wolfsbane Potion once she found out what James was really up to."

They both fell silent once again.

"Harry has so much of James in him," Lupin said. "I had private lessons with him, taught him to conjure a Patronus. It was just like watching James try to work out how to become an animagus. Harry has that same determination, and much of James's talent, though without the arrogance."

"We didn't learn Patronuses until sixth year," said Sirius. "Why were you teaching Harry such an advanced charm?"

"It was the dementors, Sirius," Lupin said. "You know they were guarding the school, 'protecting' the students from you. But the horrors they forced Harry to remember were causing him to pass out whenever he got too near one. Harry confessed to me that their presence made him relive the night his parents died."

Sirius looked shocked and horrified. "But he couldn't have been more than a year old when that happened. . ."

"Be that as it may, Harry was remembering the encounter in vivid detail: James trying to hold Voldemort off so Lily could run for it, Lily pleading with Voldemort not to kill Harry, Voldemort casting the Killing Curses that killed his parents."

Sirius looked sick.

"But, Padfoot," Lupin spoke gently, "you should have seen his Patronus. . ."

Sirius looked up, his dark eyes locking with Lupin's gray ones.

"It was," Lupin smiled with pride, "a stag."

 _FIN_


End file.
